Great-granny’s great escape

House collapses with woman in it

UNHARMED: Great grandmother Viola King speaks to medics in front of the roof of her La Puerta, Diego Martin house which collapsed yesterday. PHOTO BY ROGER JACOB

A 63-YEAR-OLD great-grandmother escaped with nary a scratch after her Diego Martin home collapsed around her yesterday afternoon. Viola King, mother of seven and great-grandmother of one, said she survived only through the hand of the Almighty.

“If I didn’t have God in my heart, what do you think would have happened to me?” King asked. “Everything happens for the best.”

Four Roads fire officers at the scene said that at 4.30 pm, they received a report that a house at LP 87B Upper La Puerta Avenue had just collapsed with a woman still inside. Fire and emergency services mobilised immediately and when they got to the collapsed house and pulled King out, she was unhurt.

Emergency Heath Service medics pleaded with her to go to hospital for observation but she stoutly refused, saying she was fine except for “a slight pain in meh right ankle.” The ankle was bandaged by the medic at the scene. Despite her house being reduced to rubble King was in high spirits, sitting on a cement block and holding a cocoa knife.

Asked how she felt, King said she wasn’t frightened for a second during the ordeal. “Frightened for what?” King exclaimed. “The house fell around me like boom! But I came through it.” As news of the house’s collapse spread around the La Puerta community, King’s relatives and close friends hustled up the hill fearing the worst, only to find her holding court with this reporter as well as firemen and medics. An emergency medical technician tested King’s blood pressure which was found to be slightly elevated.

“Don’t worry about that, man, after two Carib (beer) that will go down,” King said. When Newsday asked where she would sleep for the night, King’s relatives assured she would be well taken care of.